healthy family meals

boredjellybean

Hi there

Bearing in mind he new guidelines suggest we should now be eating at least 7 portions of fruit/veg a day I thought it might be an idea to share our healthy family meals

There are 6 of us in total & it can cost a small fortune to get fresh fruit & veg into us

The obvious meals we fall back on are things like pasta with a veg packed sauce, pizza etc

Please please share your ideas & any tips you have on cramming more portions in

sarah x

newthrift

I personally think 7 is too much to say we must have that every day!! I think the best to aim for is to get as much as possible in and if you achieve 7 then its fab
I agree it can come costly at times, unless buying in season from farmers markets/green groccers ect which isn't always possible - espeically if you have six mouths!!
Have you considered buying frozen fruit and veg? I often keep frozen raspberries in and I chuck them on my cereal/porridge as the defrost really quick or in some yoghurt. I also ATM have banana, blueberry and strawberry frozen mix which I sometimes make in to smoothies - or you could blend them and make them in to ice pops for the kids over the summer.

boredjellybean

thanks I love the ideas of fruity ice pops & smoothies, I haven't made either i ages & the kids love them

beluga

Fruit on cereal, for dessert with yogurt / ice cream, soups, salads / salad on sandwiches, coleslaw as a side dish, swap potatoes for sweet potatoes or other root veg, raisins or other dried fruit as snacks, in cakes, flapjacks etc, frozen chopped spinach shoved into any sauce, crudite as snacks / lunches, smoothies, juices, baked beans on toast or with a cooked breakfast, lentils or beans added to casseroles / soups etc, a handful of peas / corn thrown into rice, veg curry side dishes on curry night...
Tinned, dried, frozen, juices and fresh all count, so it can be cheaper and easier to have a selection in to throw in any dish. x

[Deleted User]

Homemade coleslaw is very cheap to make with cabbage, carrots and onion and a little mayonnaise and goes with most meats hot or cold. Fruit, any you have, chopped up in a glass with a sprinkling of cereal and some yoghurt of whatever flavour you like makes a breakfast sundae that my kids loved when they were little. A bean/chickpea based salad counts as one of the five a day and fruit kebabs drizzled with honey make an appetising pud. If you want to give them a real treat once in a while strawberries half dipped in chocolate and popped onto greased proof paper to set are really nice as are grapes or clementine segments coated in chocolate and left to set. Hope that helps, Lyn xxx.

paulineb_2

Aldi for the super six fruit and veg. Frozen veg. Tinned fruit. Frozen fruit as well.

I certainly dont eat 7 portions a day, I probably get around 5 portions of fruit and veg (more veg than fruit), 5 days a week or so.

EstherH

I saw this 'upping' of the amount of f&v we are supposed to have on the newspaper review on the news last night. Two of the papers said 10 a day and one report said that tinned and frozen don't count and neither does fruit juice. There is no way I can do it without counting frozen veg as that is what we mainly have. Part of me is alarmed at this news and the other part is thinking that they keep changing their minds over everything and so ignore it.

Esther x

Beckyy

Cutting back on meat and replacing with some more veg could help cram in some extra, this may well balance out the cost of the extra veg a little. Cutting back on carb accompaniments makes room for more too, coleslaw instead of chips etc.

Wraps and pitta breads can be good as you can include a little meat (cheaper as doesn't need to a portion like '1 whole chicken breast each') and then fill with cooked veg (pepper/onion/sweetcorn) and a bit of nice sauce - serve with salad.

Currys can be good also as meat can be subbed for extra veg.

Coleslaw - cabbage, carrot, onion + mayo (and wholegrain mustard if you like it)

I think there's also quite a lot of emphasis on having more veg than fruit, which will be difficult for people as fruit is much easier for people to snack on. Fruit is very easy to add in - peanut butter on toast with sliced banana added. Yogurt with berries added. etc.

toozie_2

I have been thinking about the 7 a day today.

I know I easily eat 7 portions of fruit, banana with porridge at breakfast, pile of grapes mid morning, today had some melon balls after lunch, apple mid afternoon, more grapes while cooking diner, and will have a large orange later.

This is about the same everyday, sometimes I have frozen forests fruits on my porridge with a yogurt on top.

Where I fall down is the veg, as said had the porridge for breakie, a HM ham salad for lunch (various salad items, lettuce, toms, spring onion, cucumber, red onion, ham & cous cous)
But.....that lot would probably only be one handful-so is that one portion?

Last night I made a huge bolognaise (mince beef), tonight added finely chopped celery, already had plenty of onions & garlic in it, some grated carrot, red & green papers, oh and some over ripe fresh toms.
Added fresh chilli, kidney beans and had with rice.
The actual portion I have eaten contained bits of the above, of which the veg would maybe be just under a handful.

We are not really ones for having meat & 2 veg type meals, and with working long hours prefer one pot concoctions. I have some chicken fillets I'm going to cook at the end of the week......chicken & veg casserole...........curried chicken & veg........??

I have been making HM coleslaw recently, with white cabbage, carrot & onion, and with red cabbage..........but I love mayonnaise mixed into it!!

Help!!

iammumtoone

I dont think it is necessary to eat 7 a day but it is for 5. By advertising 5 per day they were probably finding the average person eats 3, so by putting the guideline up to 7 maybe they are hoping that will encourage people to actually eat 5!

That's my view on it anyway. I shall be sticking to making sure I try to eat five a day.

belfastgirl23

I was advised to eat more Indian food if I wanted to increase my veg. So dhals and vegetable curries or thai curries. You can throw in pretty much any type of veg and if you use curry paste it's really easy. Also tastes nicer on the second day!